Intermediate learner of Chinese, looking for suggestions and advice

[Cyath]

Hello all, this is my first post on the forums. I have somewhat of an interesting background when it comes to studying Chinese - I was born into a Chinese-speaking country (Singapore) but my family spoke no Chinese at all, and in fact I hated it when I had to study it in school. I was completely horrible at Chinese for many years until I learnt Japanese (which I am extremely fluent in) and then my Chinese improved by sheer dint of the amount of Japanese I knew. It's a long story spanning 20 years, but I don't have time to relate the entire thing here.

 

To cut a long story short, basically now with the amount of resources on the Internet, Chinese dictionaries, Google Translate and whatnot, I have attempted to restart my learning of Chinese. Why? First off, I like learning, and I like learning languages. Secondly, I think that learning Chinese is probably just a good idea - it's a good skill, will allow me to communicate with Chinese people etc. Thirdly and most importantly, I want to learn to read wuxia novels in the original language. That is probably my primary reason for learning.

 

So what I am doing to learn Chinese right now? I do not have the time and resources presently to commit to a formalized course of study, so I am teaching myself the same way I learnt Japanese - through Internet resources. Namely, webpages, playing games and the like. I'm asking for suggestions here because I've found that most resources assume that I am a Westerner trying to learn Chinese (I'm not) or provide me with a lot of information that I already know. 

 

I have no idea what are the HSK or any kind of qualifications are, since they were not offered in my country of residence. I would classify myself as being of intermediate ability - I can converse in Chinese reasonably well as long as it's not something harder than buying food or making routine transactions. I can read Chinese magazines with some degree of difficulty, but reading a newspaper is out of the question. 

 

I am mainly concentrating on the written aspect of Chinese right now (to read wuxia novels) and not so interested in speaking, since I can already converse with a reasonable level of ability. 

 

What resources would you suggest? I'm currently using the Chinese grammar wiki and finding it great. I am also playing some games in Chinese. I can afford about 30 minutes to an hour of study time a day - I don't believe in studying too intensely since in my experience that typically produces adverse results.

 

Thanks and sorry for the long post! 

[Mati1]

HSK is the PRC's way to judge the Chinese proficiency level of foreigners and is needed to apply at Chinese universities.

 

There are some threads on CF discussing internet resources for learning Chinese, just look around a bit. I am sure someone else will reply here too. I am mostly using paper resources myself.

I guess the obvious answer to your question is that you could browse the internet until you find enough webpages in Chinese about topics that you are interested in and then try to read them regularly to improve your level.

 

Can you only speak Japanese or also read and write? If you can read Japanese well you can use Japanese resources for learners of Chinese. There should be plenty, but this is more paper oriented again and I don't know if it's necessary at your level.

[Cyath]

I can read and write Japanese as well. 

 

Yeah, the trouble is finding resources that are geared to my level. Most of what I've found is for beginners. 

[Flickserve]

I suppose the difficulty is finding articles which are interesting and match your level which are both not too easy and not too hard.

this might help

https://www.chinesetextanalyser.com

[calibre2001]

It would help if you could provide a sample chinese webpage of what you can comfortably read (with zero effort) and what you can read (but with effort). 

[Cyath]

Thanks for all the comments and replies so far.

 

This is a page that I can read with the assistance of an app (Chinese Reader 8 to be precise) - http://hearthstone.huiji.wiki/wiki/%E5%8A%A0%E6%8B%89%E5%85%8B%E8%8B%8F%E6%96%AF%E5%A4%A7%E7%8E%8B

 

I can't find a good example of a page I can read without effort.

 

Also, will try the program. It looks good and I wouldn't have found it without asking here. Thanks!

[calibre2001]

From that website, I guess vocabulary is the culprit here. 

You're better off using native speaker stuff only (which you are).

I personally found practicing speaking with native speakers with the right strategy very effective for vocabulary acquisition. But this isn't your objective.

 

Else, the best way I can think of (without the need to study intensively) is to make reading Chinese a daily habit.

You could follow certain Chinese magazines/newspapers on FB, Tweeter etc and just read articles that interest you.

If you're an auditory type of person, you can use the chinese TV/radio approach to pick up more words via subtitles/ ears.

Maybe a mix of both methods could be optimal for you.

 

Use a notepad / online document / flashcards to jot down new learned words with a word limit for each day (to avoid exhausting the mind). 

 

Some guidance on how to approach Wuxia novels:

http://www.hackingchinese.com/a-language-learners-guide-to-wuxia-novels/

[Luxi]

If you can read and write Kanji, and your aim is reading wuxia novels, I think you could try going there straight away and using some of those novels to learn Chinese from them. Speaking practice may be a problem but if you're still in Singapore you have easy access to Chinese TV and radio, have you tried following a Chinese TV series with English subtitles? Plenty of martial arts series available and the language many use is quite simple - of the more recent, I found 琅琊榜, tr. as "Nirvana in Fire" quite easy to understand even without reading subtitles and the novel is online and is easy to read too.

 

Gu Long's（古龙）novels are written in a very simple, direct language, and the same phrases and events keep coming back, You could reading some on-line using pop-up dictionaries and other aids like the Chinese Text Analyser that Flickserve mentioned above. See here:

 

http://www.my285.com/wuxia/gulong/cjqy/01.htm

 

You can try also the 'free preview' option with online book sellers. I use Duokan a lot, this is their page for Gu Long. The Duokan reader for Windows just opens in a browser page and you can use pop-up dictionaries in Firefox or Chrome, or the Translator app in the latest version of the Edge browser.

 

http://www.duokan.com/author/8393/1-1

 

I'd concentrate more on studying grammar than on characters, many of which you already know. Modern Chinese grammar is simpler than Japanese and you could learn very quickly what you need for reading texts in modern Chinese. 

 

You may have problems with simplified characters as the Kanji you know uses traditional characters, but there are apps you can use to convert digital text from simplified to traditional characters, and many e-book readers give you a choice. You may try converting the Gu Long page above into traditional characters to see how much more you can understand. 

 

Edit to add: You may find this grammar course by Beijing University useful  You can do it at your own pace and for free, unless you want a certificate.

 

https://www.edx.org/course/zhong-ji-yi-yu-yu-fa-intermediate-pekingx-20000001x-0